Beware of the Fido Roam

If you have a Fido Pulse plan, Fido will have enabled (whether you wanted it or not) the Fido Roam plan. You might think you can just ignore it if you have no interest in using their roaming services but that is not the case. There are in fact a few sneaky little gotchas that may cost you upwards of $180 in extra charges on your next bill if you aren't fully informed. Read on.

It used to be that when you arrive in a destination country, you'd recieve a text message informing you that you were roaming and that pay-per-use roaming charges would apply. You would then even be given some roaming package you could choose to opt-in to. Cool!

Not the case anymore. Now with Fido Roam enabled, what happens it that once you arrive in your destination country, you'll recieve a text message that looks something like this:

It would be very easy to think that by just not turning on your data (and data roaming) you'd be ok BUT that is not the case at all. There in lies the grand trap that cost me a small chunk of change!

You will automatically enable Fido Roam services for a 24 hour period at whatever cost was specified in the initial text if you simply send a text message OR recieve an MMS message (a text with a picture) OR recieve a call and reject it (rather than letting it ring and go to voicemail). You won't have any idea that you activated it either until you get your bill at the end of your billing cycle. Further more, you can't even disable it from your customer account portal, you need to either get onto live chat or call a customer service representative to have them disable it!

I have a dual-SIM phone and in my case, it used to be that upon leaving, I'd disable Fido's data and enable my host countries data plan and I'd be free and clear. If I recieved a text or call on my Fido line, I could simply respond to it and pay the one time usage fee... turns out this year, that wasn't the case and rather than paying $10.50 for sending about 14 text messages I was dinged $84! Now that's one hell of a markup in price!

I highly recommend you disable Fido Roam ASAP before travelling and instead, get a SIM chip for the country you are visiting. You will almost ALWAYS get a far superior deal to any roaming package Fido offers you!

Going forward, here is what FIdo should do:

1) When the roaming plan has been activated for a 24 hour period, you should recieve a text message indicating it has been activated and should also give you the exact time it will be deactivated (as it lasts for a 24 hour period).

2) There should be a quick and easy way to opt out by text message.

3) It should NOT be automatically enabled on any plan, instead users should be able to opt-in to it like before.

4) It should be easily enabled/disabled via the customer service portal as opposed to having to actually have a customer service rep do it for you.

I don't forsee any of these happening though because there is money to be made as data overage and roaming charges bring HUGE dollars to telecom providers.

Hope this helps someone from falling into this trap because if you think Fido will reimburse you, you are sorely mistaken. You will be told that their roaming policies are "clearly laid out" on some part of their site for anyone to read... sadly this is all after the fact that you've fallen into the trap!

Now cue the customer service reps and community mods to chime in with their copy-pasted responses indicating how sorry they are that I feel this way and that it's not for everyone and so on....

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

Thanks for your feedback! That's certainly a lot of points to cover and I promise not to copy/paste anything.

I just have a few points to clarify there:

1. We extended Fido Roam to everyone so all our customers can take advantage of it while traveling. In general, there's more value in using Fido Roam then pay-per-use. Hence why we went with the opt-out model rather than the opt-in one.

2. Although we extended this to everyone, you do have the options to opt-out anytime to use our pay-per-use rates. Those rates and Fido Roam information can be found here.

3. Usage that triggers Fido Roam includes making or receiving a phone call, retrieving voicemails, sending a text (receiving is free), sending/receiving a picture message or using data. Rejecting a call will not trigger Fido Roam.

That all being said, I completely understand if Fido Roam doesn't meet your particular needs. We will certainly take all your other suggestions in consideration.

If you would like to discuss you billing, I would be quite happy to send you a PM to discuss it further with you.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

Hey Fido,

you always catch client using new charge. I had been your customer for 8 years, every time you have new charge surprised us. We are learning didn’t new charge from your service.

i just back from Bahama, see the billing is 16 times Fido roam charge in 2 trip. ($192) your service are too powerful, even access to my phone changed roaming settings. I don’t know is it legally? Should we report to public media let every client knew it?

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

With all the due respect to the OP, I am glad to use this Fido Roam feature as I never faced issues the OP mentioned and I travel pretty often. To me personally, Fido Roam is more valuable than pay per use and I see the logic Fido decided to put this option first. I would hate to pay per use until I realize that my Fido Roam had to be manually turned on. The good thing is that Fido does not force anyone to use it and let you switch if you want. Days when I do not plan to use the phone, I switch the data off, and Fido does not charge me. Rejecting calls never costed me a penny. I just wish Fido did not increase their US roaming rates from $5 to $7 and limit from 10 to 15 days.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

Right. They don't force you to use it but it is automatically activated on your account and if you aren't aware of that, that's where the problems start. If I wanted a roaming package, I'd get one but I don't want (or need) one. It used to be that if you made a call or sent a text, you'd get dinged for just that amount where as now sending a text, receiving a picture text, making or receiving a call automatically starts the roaming package and you won't get any indication that you were just charged for a day of roaming when you had no intention of doing that. You'd think it would be pretty easy for Fido to send a quick text indicating you've started the roaming package for a 24 hour period! In the EU, there are strict rules about this and you have to get informed about ALL activity like that and you have to specifically opt out of those informational texts.

Want to disable it? Well you can't disable via text OR through your online account portal. you have to specifically get in contact with a customer service rep to do that which is a little ridiculous.

Mobile providers make a TON of cash off roaming packages, it is not in their best interest to make these things easy.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

Hello FaridGM,

@FaridGM wrote:... Days when I do not plan to use the phone, I switch the data off, and Fido does not charge me. Rejecting calls never costed me a penny...

For those who are not aware, disabling data and/or roaming data does not prevent roaming for voice and messaging. Making/receiving calls or sending messages with that setting disabled will still incur the Fido Roam charge.

Thank you for verifying that rejecting calls no longer incurs roaming charges.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

wow fido. I'm in Europe and just fell into this trap. Well never again. I'm switching off my phone and researching better providers as soon as I get back.I do hope that more people become aware of this trick! This is awful business practice.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

Find a WIFI hotspot, log into your customer portal and get a service rep to shut it off. You'd think there would be a super easy way to do this but it seems they lack the technology to do this very thing. It's quite odd. Yes I'm being sarcastic.

Also, depending where you are in Europe and assuming your phone is unlocked, you can buy a SIM chip in the country you are in with a pay-as-you-go type service and you can get GB's of data for a fraction of what we pay. On top of that, because roaming fees have been banned in the EU, you can usually use your data from one EU country in another.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

It's unfortunate to see your experience with Fido Roam has left you feeling this way however I can assure you that there is no trap. If you do not wish to have any charges for roaming with Fido Roam, you can simply choose not to use any of your services from your Fido phone while abroad.

You are only billed for what you use and you are notified of the applicable charges as soon as you connect to a foreign network.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

Yes, I do get that now. I know now that you have to turn off your phone completely in order to avoid charges. I could tell by the 200 dollars overcharge in my bill for sending and receiving a few text messages.

But it is definitely designed to trick customers with the charges. Fido Roam is turned on by default and unless you turn your phone all the way off/ remove the SIM, it IS going to be activated one way or another, without you even getting a notification that you're being overcharged and entering a 24 hours activation period.

And you can't even just turn it off without calling customer services.

If I had realized it would be like this I wouldn't have brought my phone and just got a temporary phone here. It's certainly cheaper than fido roam charges.

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

We're really sad that you feel this way about Fido Roam @maudie! That's certainly not the impression we want you to have of the service. As my colleagues mentioned before, we only bill you for the usage incurred on your account. If there is no outgoing usage, there is no charge.

I personally received email notifications both times I activated Fido Roam on my line to advise me of its impact. Did you check your email if you received it too?

Re: Beware of the Fido Roam

Yes you get welcoming text when you arrive in a new country but you don't get any sort of indication that Fido Roaming has been enabled for a given period.

I think the issue is related to the likelihood that home networks do not necessarily get usage information in real-time:

For post-paid roaming, when the user first switches their phone on, the visited network checks in real time whether the home network authenticates the customer and authorises its use abroad... ~ taken from here.

That would result in the Welcoming text message we receive when our phones connect to a foreign network.

...But the data records (CDRs) with the details on each SMS and data session are sent to the home operator with some delay (up to several days).. ~ also taken from link above.

If home networks don't receive usage information in real-time, it's not possible for them to provide customers with notification that a roaming session has begun without a delay.

The situation is different with pre-paid services where a real-time exchange is required to prevent the balance of the roaming customers' accounts from becoming overdrawn. That's likely the reason why pre-paid roaming often costs more than post-paid roaming.